The white-collar audience sat and ate their $100 meals, with Wente Vineyard’s newest fine wine in one hand, and a Willie Nelson headband souvenir in the other. They all basked in the upscale look of Wente’s lit up trees, expensive stone steps, and green vine that snaked around the amphitheater’s buildings and walls, just to hear old antique country folk songs.

On Sept. 13, the iconic Folk and Country music legend Willie Nelson came and played an almost two hour concert at local Wente Vineyards.

Back in the mid to late seventies, when I had no hope of ever getting into bars, I was fortunate that a few of the old coffee houses in Toronto still hung on. Though long past its hey day when Joni Mitchell and Neil Young played there, The Riverboat on Yorkville Ave was still the flagship around which the survivors rallied.